Singing solicitor’ raises money for cancer charity

Local ‘singing solicitor’ takes to the airwaves to raise money for Northamptonshire cancer charity

Kevin Rogers, Chairman and Partner at Wilson Browne Solicitors has teamed-up with John Griff (of JG Media Services, and a name familiar to many in the region) to raise money for The Lewis Foundation, a cancer support charity – which is run by another solicitor Lorraine Lewis, and her husband!

In recent months and years, Kevin has shown the human side of being a lawyer, with his many #SingingSolicitor posts on social media and has become well known for his singing by the business community. Kevin commented:

‘I used to sing in bands and choirs and a couple of years ago I sent my mother a video of me singing along to karaoke… of course it wasn’t perfect, but she encouraged me to share it, and the “have a go” approach, and #singingsolicitor became a thing on LinkedIn.

‘My then best friend (and solicitor that I met at WB) Graham Hill died of skin cancer in 2012. He left four children, and left me as Trustee for the littlest two. Over time I have had the pleasure of being involved with a few charity songs with John Griff, and we were both aware of the Lewis Foundation. In Graham’is memory and for the many people living with cancer, we decided to help. The aim is to raise awareness and money through donations or the song – a cover version of Billy Bragg’s Tank Park Salute, which is about a son who lost his father to cancer.

‘At the time of writing, we have raised more than £1,800: over three times our original target, and enough to pay for more than 501 gifts for patients undergoing cancer treatment. I hope people will check out the song or visit and donate at:

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/tankparksalute.’

World Cancer Day

The song was released on February 4th, World Cancer Day, a day set aside to raise awareness and to improve education, hoping to drive personal, collective and government action. According to Cancer Research, someone is diagnosed with cancer in the UK every 2 minutes, and cancer can affect anyone: most people know someone who has had it, or lost a loved one to it.

Every week The Lewis Foundation source, package and hand deliver free gifts and support packs to adult cancer patients in hospital. The packs include things that they might find difficult to buy, have forgotten, or run out of. Even in the current pandemic, they deliver over 2500 packs a month, covering 7 hospitals.

The aim is to raise awareness and money either through donations or the download of the song and video – a cover version of Billy Bragg’s Tank Park Salute, is on Amazon, Apple, Spotify, and Youtube Music.

John reports: ‘As somebody with a professional background in music I was fascinated by Kevin’s persona as the ‘Singing Solicitor’ - I was also hugely impressed by his use of video in social media to spread more than a little cheer! We started singing together in lockdown and this latest foray into music making has just proved how much empathy and generosity there is within the wider community to help organisations who do so much to help alleviate the suffering of others. The story was never about us - and never should be. Instead it was - and is - about the remarkable success of The Lewis Foundation and others who do what they do day by day without fanfare or applause.

‘I have no idea whether people have been donating to support our singing - or donating by way of an appeal for us to stop! But we’ve both been hugely humbled by everyone’s generosity - and encouraged by the clear support shown to community groups going about their work. We need them to continue - and I’ve been delighted to see other professional people starting to take on their own fundraising challenges. We wish them the same measure of success that we’ve been blessed by, for the greater good.’

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/ tankparksalute has more details, a link to the charity and of course, donations would be very, very welcome.